Fuzhou National Forest Park

The 1,000-year-old banyan tree in Fuzhou National Forest Park.[Photo by Elyar Najmehchi for chinadaily.com.cn]

Fuzhou National Forest Park is located 7 km north of the downtown area and it takes about a 30 minute ride to get there from the city center. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides and consists of multiple sights divided into six sections: bamboo, trees, cultural landscape, dragon pool, forest museum and bird forest. It is also known as the Fuzhou Botanical Garden and the bamboo section alone features hundreds of different plants with paths trailing though a meticulously laid out and well-maintained landscape gardenlike terrain. A definite highlight is the gigantic 1,000-year old banyan tree near the lake.